


Of Braggarts and Twits

by kromi



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-29
Updated: 2011-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-21 23:16:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kromi/pseuds/kromi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asric comes to a scary realization when Jadaar seems to be hitting it off well with an attractive woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Braggarts and Twits

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like clichés!

There was something about the way how Jadaar kept glancing at the woman by the refreshments stand, all nonchalant and with an 'I'm just observing my surroundings' level of casualness that made Asric feel the burning need to call him a useless, infuriating blowhard. Not that there was anything strange about _that_ : just being near one another was usually reason enough for them to start flinging insults. It all came from their own twisted sense of courtesy and the way they were used to treating each other during the few months they had been practically inseparable for reasons Asric still couldn't quite fathom. There used to be reasons, back on what was left of Draenor, when the ire he felt over his demotion was still fresh in his mind and the bent-up frustration was easy to discharge over a drink at someone who could easily be blamed for everything. All those reasons had disappeared over time as Asric realized that he just didn't care anymore. Now he couldn't even remember the last time he had bothered to get genuinely mad over something Jadaar said or did and his rehearsed annoyance was nothing but a well-crafted fallacy.

But this, Asric thought, _this_ felt like a very good reason to get genuinely mad, for once. Maybe because the woman was practicing the same kind of casual interest towards Jadaar: the pretend-to-be shy little glances over her shoulder while she leaned to the stand and stuck out her behind in an undeniably attractive angle; that infuriatingly cute little flutter of her eyelashes and the smile she pretended to flash at whatever it was that her friend had just said, while in truth the recipient was none other but Jadaar.

That was what made him so seething mad in the first place: the woman was damned attractive and not paying even half a glance at _him_ , being so preoccupied by seducing _Jadaar_ of all people, and succeeding in it by the looks of it. Jadaar was getting flushed because of the attention, toying with his drink nervously in the same manner Asric had seen him do a thousand times when a reasonably attractive woman stumbled by. Apparently he thought that playing coy was the best way to go, and this time it seemed like his practiced shyness was actually working.

In true friend-slash-enemy wingman fashion Asric just usually egged Jadaar on whenever it seemed that the affair was only a disaster waiting to happen (Jadaar had a habit of going after women who were completely out of his league), and then watched from sidelines as it all fell hilariously apart. Naturally he would gloat over Jadaar's misfortune afterwards when he was drowning his embarrassment in drinks. As one-upping each other in turns was basically their way of life, Jadaar would of course (attempt to) return the "favor" some way or the other, and Asric wouldn't have had it any other way.

This one, however, didn't look like a disaster waiting to happen with the mutual interest and all, and so there was no way Asric would just egg Jadaar on this time. He was having hard time keeping his face straight when in truth he just wanted to scream at Jadaar to get a grip and stop being so gullible and easy, and oh, Asric _knew_ what kind of two-faced selfish harlots sin'dorei women were; he had first-hand experience on them. Not that he cared about Jadaar getting his heart broken, no way: he would gloat over it like he always did and offer him a drink in reconciliation afterwards.

Something had to be done.

"What's with you?" asked Jadaar, having finally noticed.

"I don't know," Asric replied snappily. "Why don’t you ask her?" Then he almost bit his tongue. What a stupid, reckless slip.

Jadaar regarded him with a raised, slightly derisive eyebrow, his mouth cracking into a subtle grin. "So that’s how it is."

If there ever was a time Asric had really, _seriously_ wanted to punch Jadaar in his smug, blue, one-eyed face, it was now.

"So how does it feel like to be beaten in your own game by… what was it? An 'infuriating blowhard'?"

Asric only grunted in reply and stood up, finding his legs heavy and unnaturally uncooperative. Time to stop drinking, he thought and took a glance at Jadaar, enjoying his (very rare) higher ground. "Whatever, you self-absorbed goat. I'm not staying here to witness the moment you start giving her serious googly-eyes." That said he turned on his heels and left the stand.

He stopped once he was past all the traders and trainers and took a deep breath, letting his wired shoulders relax. He was suddenly craving for another drink, even though his state of inebriation was much more overwhelming than usually.

He knew looking back was probably a bad idea, but he was a slave to his curiosity and so he stole a quick peek of the stand, only to feel a strange tightness in his chest at the sight of Jadaar leaning to the stand next to the elf woman, actually engaging in a conversation with her by the looks of it. She had turned completely towards him, open and granting him her undivided attention.

Asric didn't stay to watch.

He was half-way across the grounds when a thought struck him; a tiny, eerily familiar thought that had been thoroughly silenced beneath the anger he felt over the whole event. The impact it had upon him made him stop nearly mid-step and draw a sudden breath.

He had never felt so jealous over a woman before.

Why would he feel so jealous over a woman he didn't even _know_?

Part of him tried to reason it with his long-lasting rivalry with Jadaar, but why would he feel so devastatingly angry for Jadaar actually getting somewhere? Their rivalry wasn't anymore what it had been back in Shattrath when one of them was an Aldor and the other a Scryer and their rivalry was simply written in allegiances. Now it was something that they both kept at only because they didn't know how to act with each other if they _weren't_ bickering constantly. Any attempt at a serious conversation would default to name-calling within few minutes and there had been awkward silences aplenty. Asric liked it that way: he wouldn't _mind_ a serious conversation, but it always made him feel somehow nervous and so he _had_ to gather his wit and make Jadaar tick. Jadaar was so predictable and easy and never let him down, and so the dangerously serious conversation slipped neatly into uncomplicated playful insults and intentional non sequiturs. Jadaar would do the same, of course.

And there was the gist of it, the crushingly simple realization that had made him stop mid-step: Asric was not jealous of Jadaar, he was jealous _of the woman_. He wasn’t jealous because the elf woman was interested in Jadaar, he was jealous because _Jadaar_ was interested in her. He was mad because Jadaar wouldn't give _him_ such attention, that stupid fawning look; that ridiculous display of practiced, flirty coyness.

Asric kept getting under Jadaar's skin only because he was afraid of what might happen if he _didn't_ do it.

And that was a very, very good reason to get very, _very_ drunk.

 

***

 

Although the Argent Tournament grounds were relatively small, Asric figured he had a fair chance of avoiding Jadaar since the grounds were always bustling with people and he was particularly talented at blending into his surroundings and disappearing into crowds. Even the slightest glimpse of the towering blue braggart and he'd be gone.

He had planned on getting drunk in his room at the inn and wallowing in confusion and misery and anger, hidden from Jadaar who couldn't exactly waltz right into a Sunreavers inn, being a draenei and all. At some point he realized that he needed to get something to eat, and he was running out of things to drink, thus he needed to venture outside and hope he didn't run into the person he was trying so hard to avoid.

Asric never had much luck.

Much to his chagrin he ran straight into Jadaar in one of the underpasses. There were no other people around right that second (and what were the odds!) which meant that slinking away unnoticed was impossible. To top it off Asric froze for half a second in distress, which was more than enough for Jadaar to notice him and render void all hope of escaping. Jadaar stopped, fixing his good eye on Asric.

Asric engaged his Plan B and just continued walking, deadpan, without even paying a glance at Jadaar, completely prepared to just ignore him to avoid any dirty details and manly bragging about last night that he knew was sure to erupt from Jadaar's big fat mouth the very second Asric was within earshot. He was taken by surprise when Jadaar actually grabbed his wrist as he was passing by.

Asric thought the strangely hurt look on Jadaar's face was nearly worth being forced to stop.

"You're being awfully catty," said Jadaar.

"You say it like it's somehow surprising," Asric retorted.

"It's not, only the reason _why_ is. Why didn't you come to the stand this morning?"

Asric frowned. "Why? Did you _miss me?_ " He yanked his hand free in melodramatic manner.

"It's not like you," Jadaar persisted, ignoring Asric's jab. "There's more to this than some petty jealousy."

"Not really, it's just actually the first time an attractive woman has shown any interest in _you_."

Jadaar narrowed his eye, the sneer on his face sort of painful. "So you wanted her for yourself. What was stopping you?"

Asric remained silent and Jadaar grabbed his wrist again, as if trying to get a point across. "Why all this jealousy if you didn't even try to win her over? And don't give me any crap about cutting me some slack; you've never done that before and I can't see why you'd start now. Especially because it makes you act this way."

"Indeed. Maybe you ought to start thinking about that with your pea-brain," Asric said venomously, only to realize a split second later that Jadaar was already hitting too close to home and his frustrated, wit-impaired mind was just making everything even more painfully obvious. He panicked slightly and took an instinctive step back, looking quickly for a way out. It was getting dangerous; he needed to go. The walls of the underpass were drawing closer and capturing him within and suddenly the world stopped and there were only Asric and Jadaar, stuck in a forever limbo: an eternity where the usually so quick-witted Asric didn't know what to say anymore and every hundredth of a second he spent thinking was a moment closer to Jadaar figuring out the reason why.

There was no way Asric would ever allow Jadaar to know about his unfortunate predicament. He would never get to live it down.

He bit his lip, noticed to his horror and dismay that he had been staring at Jadaar longingly and suddenly he didn't know where to look at. The whole thing was reaching a whole new unprecedented level of ridiculous.

The look on Jadaar's face had changed from thinly-veiled curiosity and the usual frustrated ire into pure confusion of the completely helpless 'what's going on' variety.

"Asric…?" he asked carefully.

That was his cue. Asric yanked his arm free, the moment of forever shattered and world fast-forwarded to its normal state. Asric slinked stealthily into a group of happily chattering Alliance aspirants passing them by, disappearing and leaving Jadaar standing confused in the middle of the pass.

Once clear of the underpass Asric broke away from the group and walked away as fast as he could without actually breaking into a run.

 

***

 

Asric found out later that night that apparently Jadaar hadn't been a completely incompetent Peacekeeper after all, as the ex-Peacekeeper in question infiltrated the inn and picked the lock to his room.

Asric reached for his daggers when he heard the tell-tale tinkling and clicking outside his door, only to end up completely flabbergasted when the shameless, clearly brainless miscreant trying to break into an inhabited room in a Sunreavers inn in the middle of the Argent Crusade-protected grounds was none other but Jadaar. If it wasn't for everything that had transpired earlier that day, Asric would have probably found time to feel violated and furious for this unabashed breach of his personal space (also he would have probably respected Jadaar a tiny bit for doing something so preposterous and out-of-norm, not that he would show it), but now he just _stared_. His standard state of inebriation didn't help one bit in catching up to what was going on and so he just stood there in the corner of his room, daggers in hands and staring helplessly.

Jadaar stood in the doorway, his bulky, tall frame covering most of it, eye narrowed and seething. "You’re an impossible _brat_ , you know that?"

"I take pride in it," Asric replied, recovering enough to gather his wit. "You _have_ heard of _knocking_ , haven't you?"

Jadaar stepped in and slammed the door shut with a loud, echoing bang. Then he just closed the distance between himself and Asric and hesitated there for just a moment; a short lingering eternity before he was upon Asric, leaning down awkwardly and kissing him on the lips. Except he was not kissing as much as he was only holding his mouth against Asric's, but regardless it was still a feebly respectable attempt at a kiss.

And Asric ignored his wildly racing heart for the sake of being what he was so very good at. He placed his hands on Jadaar's shoulders and pushed him gently away. "What are you doing?" He asked, deadpan.

Jadaar's confusion and subsequent, slowly dawning embarrassment was endearing, Asric thought. _Completely_ worth it.

"I, uh," Jadaar hesitated, lifting a hand to cover his mouth in a desperate attempt to preserve some of the dignity that he thought he had lost, "thought that was it."

" _What_ was what?"

"That." Jadaar was almost squirming and took a defensive step back, as if looking for a way out. He was probably sorry now that he had taken the time to actually close the door.

Asric cocked an eyebrow.

Jadaar grunted in frustration. " _That_."

"Oh, that pathetic attempt at a make-out that you just tried to initiate?"

Jadaar actually covered his good eye with his hand, shoulders slumping and muttering under his breath: "Shut up, I hate you. By the Naaru, I hate you so much." He continued in Draenei, probably muttering curses.

"You know what, though?" Asric said then, knowing that he would cherish the memory of Jadaar's overwhelming embarrassment for years to come. "That _was_ it."

This time he was the one to close the distance between them. He reached up to wrap his arms around Jadaar's broad shoulders and pulled him closer for a kiss. The look on Jadaar's face right then was another thing he was going to cherish for years to come.

This time it really was a kiss: Jadaar returned it ardently once he had recovered from the initial shock. He said something in Draenei, probably an insult, and slid a hand behind Asric's neck, brushing his thumb gently along Asric's jawline. His fingers entangled in Asric's hair and pressed into his skin, rubbing slowly, the soft touch indefinitely arousing. His other hand slid down against the small of Asric's back and he pulled him closer with a demanding, possessive tug.

Asric chuckled against Jadaar's mouth, who replied with nipping gently at his upper lip.

"I should probably kill you for this, you infuriating twit," Jadaar growled softly.

"For what, exactly?" Asric broke away for long enough to catch Jadaar's eye and grin at him unabashedly. "For playing you like a fool, or for being such a great kisser?"

"Definitely not for the latter, it's the first time your mouth's actually good for something," Jadaar muttered. Asric almost had the chance to deliver a triumphant verbal jab at Jadaar for being so utterly easy, but the chance shriveled up as Jadaar leaned back in again and very effectively shut him up.

For once he didn't feel the need to get the last word.

It was around the time when Asric started slowly tugging Jadaar closer to his small bed and kissing him even more deeply and demandingly, that Jadaar pulled away slowly, hands on Asric's shoulders and trying to catch his breath. He was still flushed and breathing deeply, but attempting to revert back to his usual stick-up-his-behind serious, collected self.

Asric frowned.

"I, uh, think we should talk," Jadaar managed.

Asric didn't like the sound of that one bit, so he replied with slinking away from Jadaar's hold and pressing his body shamelessly against Jadaar's, knowing full well it made him uncomfortable. He practically purred as he leaned in to kiss his neck. Jadaar put up half-hearted resistance.

"You’re making it rather hard for me to think," he muttered.

Asric's reply was a shameless, gleeful chuckle and he dragged his hands along Jadaar's sides. "Oh, I'll make it _very_ _hard_."

"Asric, I’m serious," Jadaar sighed, his breath hitching and a blush creeping upon his cheeks. " _Please._ "

Asric rolled his eyes and sighed melodramatically, stepping back to put a comfortable distance between them. "What _is_ it with you and _talking_ constantly? Can't you for once shut up for a few moments? For _this?_ "

Jadaar grunted. "What is it with _you_ and _moaning_ about everything? I'd love to shut up and continue what we…" he hesitated and waved his hand around ambiguously, suddenly looking embarrassed, " _where_ we left off, but I'm a bit confused here, so can't _you_ humor me for a few moments?"

Asric stepped even further away from Jadaar's reach and crossed his arms over his chest, deliberately ignoring how much he actually wanted Jadaar to just _touch him_. "Fine. But youstarted this."

Jadaar's smile had a painful edge. "No, I think it was you who started this by throwing a fit over that lady yesterday."

"Oh, _yes_ ," Asric said, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head back to glare at Jadaar along his nose. He was entirely unimpressed by the sudden turn the conversation was taking, ignorance now replaced with oblivion. " _That lady_. Tell me, what are you doing here in the first place, shouldn't you be somewhere with _her?_ Or are you suddenly trying to bed every blood elf on Tournament grounds and I just happen to be the next on your list of conquests?"

Jadaar sighed. "Asric…"

"I'll have you know that I'm not some—"

"I did not sleep with her."

Asric stopped in the middle of his rambling and looked at Jadaar, his eyebrows raised. "What? Why?"

"It wouldn’t have been right." Jadaar shifted nervously.

"But I saw you talking to her and she was _all over_ you! And you were interested in her!"

"So you _wanted_ me to sleep with her?" Jadaar quirked an eyebrow.

Asric gasped. "No! Of course not, are you daft?"

Jadaar sighed again, pressing his fingers to his eyelid and over the eyepatch. "I was interested in her, yes, but she said something that made me change my mind."

"What? Did she have a speech impediment?" Asric quipped. "Did she say something so outrageously dumb it was an instant turn-off or—"

Jadaar hurried to interrupt Asric's mocking, his face a tad too serious to Asric's liking. "She said 'are you sure you should be talking to me, your companion seemed rather cross,' and I told her that you are just jealous and petty. She raised her eyebrow and said, smiling, that the way you looked at me told a different story."

Asric was rendered speechless, and Jadaar averted his eye, looking embarrassed once more.

"I asked her what did she mean by that but she just smiled, finished her drink and told me that I should ask you, not her. Turns out I can put two and two together."

"Eventually," Asric said, the habitual jab entirely half-hearted. He was thinking that he should find the woman and possibly buy her flowers, kiss her on both cheeks and thank her.

Jadaar sneered. "If you are going to tell me this—" he gestured ambiguously between them, "—has been going on all the way from Shattrath, I am going to respectfully claim that you are full of it."

"Oh no, nothing of the sort, you _were_ insufferable and entirely unlikable back then," Asric said, caught the frown on Jadaar's face and offered amicably: "But so was I."

"Glad that we can agree on some things," Jadaar muttered. "What changed?"

"What _didn't_ change?" Asric spread his arms. "I found myself in a new world and the only constant, the only familiar thing about it was _you_. We claim to barely tolerate each other's company so what is it that draws us together day after day?"

The unguarded hint of a smile on Jadaar's face was an unfamiliar sight, but Asric figured he could learn to prefer it over the ever-present serious look he wore like a mask.

"That is a good question," Jadaar said.

Asric shifted closer, his face splitting into a grin. "Does it need an answer?"

"By the Naaru, I would hope not."

"Oh, so no declarations of undying love?" Asric's wide grin was taking a catlike edge as he kept inching closer, eventually pressing himself against Jadaar and wrapping his arms around his waist.

"I am ever so glad to have found a way to shut you up" Jadaar sighed with a grin to match Asric's, and leaned down to meet Asric for a kiss.


End file.
